The animal laughs the same laugh as the woodsman’s daughter. Although the creature’s words paralyze the woodsman and its laugh terrifies him, he lets his axe fall on his prey. Hunger trumps fear. The animal’s warm blood spatters the woodsman’s face. He trusses its legs with his rope without noting what kind of animal it is and begins to return home with his quarry.

His wife and Anna both receive him, clapping with joy (and with cold). The girl laughs, the same laugh that was the animal’s final utterance. The woodsman shuts his eyes and the girl, like her mother, thinks it’s because he’s tired and his belly is empty. The mother begins to prepare the creature for stewing. Anna wipes her father’s face, wetting the edge of her skirt with his water jug and rinsing it afterward, singing, “Finally we have some food on the fire….”

The girl sings and, as if it’s part of her song, she laughs. And each time she laughs, the woodsman’s blood grows colder.

The threesome sits at the table. When the hunter is served his stew, he doesn’t take a single bite. He can’t eat the creature whose eyes he looked into, who foretold a future of grief. He recalls the animal’s words: “You’ll all die of hunger.” Anna laughs. The man cries.

The woman and the girl eat; they’re so happy to have food that they don’t even realize the woodsman is crying. He thinks, My wife is going to eat me, because grief will kill me before hunger does. Before they finish their servings, he wipes his eyes, closes them, and doesn’t open them again until the table has been cleared.

When Anna falls asleep, the woodsman tells his wife everything about his two encounters. She makes up her mind.

“We must not eat any more of this meat you’ve brought home. Not you, not I, not Anna. We have no way of knowing it’s not the meat of Evil. And you should take the girl to the woman of light. I have no doubt she’s the Virgin—she’s the only one who has an internal light—and that Our Lady will look after her, and once this horrible winter has ended, we’ll see her again. She’ll bring her back to us, happy and healthy.”

“That woman can’t possibly be divine. If you could only see the light when she speaks, you feel …”